Cycling warm-ups

I've read a lot recently about the recommended warmups on the bike and I'm
just wondering why such a long length of time is recommended, even for
casual rides. Chris Carmichael recommends an hour or more for racing
warmups.

I seem to be ready to go after about 5 or 6 minutes on the road. What am I
overlooking? Aren't riders leaving their best legs in the garage doing an
hour or more on the trainer pre-race? Just wondering. ;-)

jj

In article ,
writes:
I've read a lot recently about the recommended warmups on the bike and I'm
just wondering why such a long length of time is recommended, even for
casual rides. Chris Carmichael recommends an hour or more for racing
warmups.

I seem to be ready to go after about 5 or 6 minutes on the road. What am I
overlooking? Aren't riders leaving their best legs in the garage doing an
hour or more on the trainer pre-race? Just wondering. ;-)

This might provide the answers you seek:
http://www.roadcycling.com/cgi-bin/a...view.cgi/4/458

It discusses how length of warmup depends on the event
one is preparing for.

From what I've read at the above site and elsewhwere, getting
the body's ability to deal with lactic acid up to speed before
the actual event seems to be a major, or at least important
consideration in Carmichael's approach to warmups. Sounds
reasonable to me (but I'm not a training expert, by a long shot.)


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

"jj" wrote in message
...
I've read a lot recently about the recommended warmups on the bike and I'm
just wondering why such a long length of time is recommended, even for
casual rides. Chris Carmichael recommends an hour or more for racing
warmups.

I seem to be ready to go after about 5 or 6 minutes on the road. What am I
overlooking? Aren't riders leaving their best legs in the garage doing an
hour or more on the trainer pre-race? Just wondering. ;-)

jj


My son does TTs. For a 10-mile TT he goes much better if he's done a good 30
minute warm-up during which he gets up to race pace. The warm-up is done
immediately beofre the race so when arrives at the start line he gets the
full benefit of the warm-up. If he doesn't do a proper warm-up the
difference is noticeable.

Cheers, helen s

In article ,
wrote:

I've read a lot recently about the recommended warmups on the bike and I'm
just wondering why such a long length of time is recommended, even for
casual rides. Chris Carmichael recommends an hour or more for racing
warmups.

I seem to be ready to go after about 5 or 6 minutes on the road. What am I
overlooking? Aren't riders leaving their best legs in the garage doing an
hour or more on the trainer pre-race? Just wondering. ;-)

jj

I have not a clue about the physiological issues involved in warm-ups.

All I know is that the longer my warmup, the better I race. Last weekend
I rode my bike to a 30-minute criterium about 35 km from my house. The
hour-and-a-bit of moderate work gave me from-the-gun jump, and I felt
great. No result, though, as I was held up by a crash in the last
corner. But I was in the greatly depleted lead bunch even after an
earlier unsuccessful solo break.

The trick to warm-ups is that you aren't going all out. There may be
some brief efforts to get things working correctly, but for me it just
get the legs feeling correct and eager. I make an exception for longer,
colder races, where I use the trick of hiding in a heated car as long as
possible and "warming up" with the early racing miles.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

On Wed, 06 Jul 2005 01:01:14 -0700, Ryan Cousineau wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

I've read a lot recently about the recommended warmups on the bike and I'm
just wondering why such a long length of time is recommended, even for
casual rides. Chris Carmichael recommends an hour or more for racing
warmups.

I seem to be ready to go after about 5 or 6 minutes on the road. What am I
overlooking? Aren't riders leaving their best legs in the garage doing an
hour or more on the trainer pre-race? Just wondering. ;-)

jj

I have not a clue about the physiological issues involved in warm-ups.

All I know is that the longer my warmup, the better I race. Last weekend
I rode my bike to a 30-minute criterium about 35 km from my house. The
hour-and-a-bit of moderate work gave me from-the-gun jump, and I felt
great. No result, though, as I was held up by a crash in the last
corner. But I was in the greatly depleted lead bunch even after an
earlier unsuccessful solo break.

The trick to warm-ups is that you aren't going all out. There may be
some brief efforts to get things working correctly, but for me it just
get the legs feeling correct and eager. I make an exception for longer,
colder races, where I use the trick of hiding in a heated car as long as
possible and "warming up" with the early racing miles.

Thanks Ryan.

Actually, a short story from yesterday: I was just getting dressed to go
ride when suddenly my UPS went off and I looked out the window and saw a
torrential downpour, followed by high winds and then...lights out! I shut
everything down and went to plan B'.

Take a nap. ;-)

About an hour later I got up and the sun was out so I got ready to ride. My
wife had just come in the door and was babbling about trees down and I
realized that my primary route out of the neighborhood was probably
blocked.

So we jumped in the car for a quick tour and discovered a mini-tornado must
have touched down south of me and ripped apart several large trees,
including one blown onto the powerlines and just about toppled a telephone
pole.

So I jumped on the stationary bike and with no fan, or music g, I sweated
out 30 hard minutes, kicking myself for not getting out before the storm.

As I was riding I thought, 'hey, why not go out and tour around the
neighborhood and watch the guys repairing the damage and stuff?'.

So I changed shirts and jumped on the road bike.

Immediately I noticed my legs felt really, really good - not at all tired
like I thought they might from the hard effort on the stationary bike. As
you know there's no coasting - mine is the type with the large flywheel -
so my quads were pumped.

Out on the road it was a great feeling, as though I had about doubled my
normal power in the legs - certainly a nice illusion. ;-)

So I cruised the neighborhood, which is quite hilly and went up all the
little side streets with their steep entries, getting in about 10 miles in
small bits. Pretty nice. So now I'm planning on using the stationary bike
frequently to warm up the quads and glutes and calves and increase the
sensation power before rides.

I think with the ability to coast, even though I hit a couple small hills
pretty hard, I'm not getting the blood flowing and the muscles pumped well
enough, so I think this kind of warm-up will be perfect.

jj

On Tue, 5 Jul 2005 16:38:21 +0100, "wafflycat"
waffles*A*T*v21net*D*O*T*co*D*O*T*uk wrote:


"jj" wrote in message
.. .
I've read a lot recently about the recommended warmups on the bike and I'm
just wondering why such a long length of time is recommended, even for
casual rides. Chris Carmichael recommends an hour or more for racing
warmups.

I seem to be ready to go after about 5 or 6 minutes on the road. What am I
overlooking? Aren't riders leaving their best legs in the garage doing an
hour or more on the trainer pre-race? Just wondering. ;-)



My son does TTs. For a 10-mile TT he goes much better if he's done a good 30
minute warm-up during which he gets up to race pace. The warm-up is done
immediately beofre the race so when arrives at the start line he gets the
full benefit of the warm-up. If he doesn't do a proper warm-up the
difference is noticeable.

Cheers, helen s

Good data, HS. I used the stationary bike again today for about 15 min to
get the legs pumped and break a sweat and then went out on the road bike.
Felt pretty good, and rode one of my harder routes with a lot less effort.
(My regular route is still blocked off by all the fallen trees from where
yesterday's mini-tornado touched down a few blocks south of here.)

Guess it's worth mentioning that I must be riding harder though it feels
easier, b/c for the first time in a long while the quads are a just a tiny
bit sore from yesterday. Interesting.

Thanks for the kind reply! ;-)

jj